Military Order 

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OF THE 

Loyal Legion of the United States. 



NECROLOGY 

OF THE 

COMMANDERY 

OF THE 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 
1888 



GENERAL U. S. ARMY. 



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NECROLOGY 

OF THE 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 
COMMANDERY 



1888 



GIBSON BROS. 

Printers and Bookbinders 
washington, d. c. 



UNITED STATES ARMY. 

For the second time within the brief space of two years the 
Military Order of the Loyal Legion is called upon to mourn the 
loss by death of its Commander-in-Chief. In February, 18S7, 
we were summoned to pay a last tribute of respect to the mem- 
ory of Winfield Scott Hancock, one of the most brilliant of the 
infantry commanders of the War. On August 5, last, died at 
Nonquitt, Massachusetts, the greatest cavalry commander of this 
generation, Philip Henry Sheridan, General of the Army 
of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Loyal 
Legion. 

No memorial which could be condensed within proper limits 
for such an occasion as this could do justice to the life, the 
genius, and the services of such a soldier as Sheridan. His 
career was at once one of the most picturesque and most striking 
of the illustrious heroes who were brought prominently into 
view by the events of the Great Civil War. The obscurity of 
his origin ; the common-place of his earlier history ; the lateness 
of his arrival upon the stage of active service in the War ; the 
suddenness and rapidity of his rise ; the remarkable brilliancy of 
his achievements ; the completeness of his victories, and the im- 
portant part which he bore in the closing acts of the Great 
Drama of War, mark him at once as a romantic character and a 
military genius. 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

This is the first occasion, as it will doubtless be the last, in the 
history of this Order, that the subject of a memorial notice has 
been at the same time a Companion of this Commandery, the 
Commander-in-Chief of the Order, General of the Army, and 
one of the greatest soldiers of his age. This unique concurrence 
of facts seems to warrant, in fact to demand, a somewhat more 
extended memorial than is usual, or than would be deemed ap- 
propriate under other circumstances. 

Character is the sum of a man's thinking and doing. Into 
it enter the keys of thought, and the springs of action — heredity, 
environment, education, and historical movement. To know 
any man truly 'we must know him in all these relations. We 
must know his inherited tendencies, his educational develop- 
ment, his theatre of action, and his historical surroundings. 
Great men are the men who achieve great results, who change 
the trend of events, who leave their impress upon their times. 
Judged by these criteria Sheridan was a great man. 

It is, perhaps, as yet too early to fully measure and determine 
his place in history ; but the concurrent opinion of his country- 
men, the action of Congress in reviving for him the grade of 
General, and the universal judgment of military men, anticipate 
the verdict of posterity, in declaring him one of the great trium- 
virate of our War — Grant, .Sherman, and Sheridan. While 
Grant will doubtless forever hold first place as the great strat- 
egist and the Commander of all our armies, it is doubtful 
whether even he more conspicuously contributed than did Sher- 
idan to the destruction of the organized power of the Rebellion, 
and the termination of hostilities. 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 
I. 

Philip H. Sheridan was the son of John and Mary 
Sheridan, natives of Ireland, who had been residents of the 
United States but a few months at the time of the birth of their 
ilhistrious son, who was born at the vilhige of Somerset, Perry 
County, Ohio, on the sixth day of March, 1831. It is a circum- 
stance that can scarcely escape observation, that the three 
foremost characters of the War for the Union, Grant, Sherman, 
and Sheridan, were all natives of the same State, and the two 
latter were born within a score of miles of each other. 

There was nothing in the boyhood of Sheridan to discrim- 
inate it from the boyhood of any Irish-American lad of his class. 
At twelve years of age he secured a position as a " Chore boy " 
in a store, where he worked for a few dollars a month, having 
received but the most elementary education in the schools of his 
locality. At the age of sixteen he applied to the Representative 
of his District, the Honorable Thomas Ritchie, for the appoint- 
ment to the Military Academy at West Point, and Mr. Ritchie, 
seeing in him, as he thought, military aptitude, conferred upon 
him the coveted appointment; and on the ist of June, 184S, 
Sheridan reported at West Point for examination. At the time 
of his appointment the War with Mexico was still in progress, 
and it is not improbable that this circumstance increased his 
natural inclinations and drew him toward the life of a soldier. 

Having successfully passed the entrance examination, not then 
as strict at West Point as now, he entered his career as a cadet 
as a member of the class of 1852. His first room-mate was 
Henry W. Slocum, afterwards a distinguished major-general of 

5 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

volunteers, and commander of one of Sherman's columns in his 
historic march from Savannali through the Carolinas. Among 
his other class-mates might be named General Thomas Lincoln 
Casey, now Chief of Engineers; General D. S. Stanley, Gen- 
eral G. F. Hartsutr, General C. R. Woods, General Kautz, 
General Crook, and several others well known to fame. But 
Sheridan was not destined to graduate with this illustrious 
class. Some breach of Academy discipline rendered it neces- 
sary that his graduation should be postponed for a year, and he 
became a member of the class of 1853, at the head of which 
stood the afterwards famous General J. B. McPherson, who fell 
in front of Atlanta, and to which belonged General J. W. Sill, 
who fell while commanding one of Sheridan's own brigades at 
the battle of Stone River, General Tyler, the Confederate Gen- 
eral Hood, and others scarcely less well known. 

July I, 1853, Sheridan completed his Academy course and 
was assigned to the First United States Infantry, with the rank 
of brevet second lieutenant. After the customary post-graduate 
vacation, he first reported for duty at Newport Barracks, Ken- 
tucky. After some time spent there in routine duties, he was 
ordered, in the month of December, 1853, to report at Fort 
Duncan, Texas, having been made a full second lieutenant of 
Company D, Fourth Infantry, then in service on the Pacific 
Coast. After something more than a year spent in Texas, 
he was ordered, in May, 1855, to Governor's Island, New York 
harbor, and thence to proceed with recruits to California. 
Accordingly, in July, he set sail for San Francisco via the Isth- 
mus of Panama, landing with his recruits at Benicia Barracks, 
near San Francisco. Thence he proceeded to Fort Reading, 



PHILIP HENRV SHERIDAN. 

under orders to relieve Lieutenant J. B. Hood, then in charge 
of the personal escort of Lieutenant R. S. Williamson, who was 
engaged in surveying a route between the Valley of the Sacra- 
mento and the Valley of the Columbia River in Oregon. This 
brought Sheridan into the country known as the " Lava Beds," 
afterwards made famous by the Modoc War. From this point 
he proceeded to Portland, Oregon, where he arrived October 9, 
1855, and thence to Fort Vancouver, where he remained until 
the spring of 1856. His first warlike experience was in an ex- 
pedition against the Yakimas, in command of a detachment of 
Company C of the First Dragoons. The Indians had attacked 
the block-house at the Middle Cascades, and Sheridan was hur- 
ried to the relief of the beleaguered party. The Indians were 
speedily put to flight, and Sheridan was commended in 
orders by General Scott. Thus it turned out that though Sher- 
idan was a lieutenant in an infontry regiment his first experi- 
ence was with mounted troops. 

In the summer of 1857 Lieutenant Sheridan joined his own 
regiment, the Fourth Infantry, and was attached to Company K, 
then under the command of Captain D. A. Russell, afterwards, 
as a major-general, killed while commanding a division of Sher- 
idan's army at Winchester, Va. Sheridan continued engaged 
in the ordinary routine of frontier military service in the remote 
regions of W^ashington Territory until after the outbreak of the 
Civil War, without change of rank and without notable incident. 
At the outbreak of the War the Department of the Pacific was 
under the command of Brigadier-General E. V. Sumner, while 
R. C. Drum, now Adjutant-General of the Arm}', and D. C. 
Buell, first Commander of the Army of the Cumberland, were his 
7 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

adjutants-general. Captain Russell having been ordered to San 
Francisco, Lieutenant Sheridan was left in command of what 
remained of the company at Fort Yamhill, Washington Terri- 
tory, until September, 1861. Meanwhile the storm of war had 
gathered and burst in the East. State after State had seceded 
from the Union, so far as it was possible for them to do so. The 
Confederacy had been organized. Armies had been gathered, 
great battles had been fought, and both parties to the gigantic 
struggle were engaged in gathering their military and naval 
powers for the supreme conflict. 



II. 



The military life of Sheridan naturally divides itself into 
four parts, the first covering the period up to the time of his 
active entry into the Civil War as an ofHcer of volunteers ; the 
second, the period extending from his appointment as Colonel of 
the Second Michigan Cavalry to the time of his call to the Army 
of the Potomac as Commander of the Cavalry Corps in the 
spring of 1864, and the third extending from this epoch to the 
end of the War, and the fourth extending from the close of the 
War to his death in 1S8S. 

The first period is characterized by nothing beyond the usual 
incidents of frontier service in the Army. In March, 1861, 
Sheridan had been promoted to the grade of First Lieutenant 
in the Fourth Infantry. With the outbreak of the Rebellion 
President Lincoln had directed the organization of a number of 
new infantry regiments in the regular Army, among them the 
Thirteenth Infantry, to which W. T. Sherman was assigned as 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Colonel, and Sheridan, with the rank of Captain, the order of 
assignment being dated June i8, 1861. This regiment was di- 
rected to rendezvous at Jefterson Barracks, Missouri. Being 
ordered to report there for duty, Sheridan reached New York 
in November, 1861, and after only two days spent in securing his 
outfit in that city, and one day in visiting his parents in Somer- 
set, Ohio, while en route, he reported as ordered. In passing- 
through St. Louis he paused long enough to report to General 
H. W. Halleck, commanding the Department of the Mississippi. 
General Halleck assigned Captain Sheridan to duty as presi- 
dent of an auditing board to audit the accounts of certain quar- 
termasters and commissaries who had been connected with the 
command of General Fremont. After something more than a 
month spent in this valuable though scarcely congenial employ- 
ment, he was, on December 26, relieved and appointed Chief 
Commissary and Qiiartermaster upon the staff of General .S. R. 
Curtis, then commanding what was known as the Army of the 
Southwest, near Rolla, Missouri. He entered upon this new 
duty with alacrity and with the vigor which always character- 
ized him, and organized the transportation of Curtis' army for 
the Pea Ridge campaign. Left at Springfield to gather supplies 
for the Army, he did not have the privilege of witnessing the 
battle of Pea Ridge or the active operations at the front. In 
consequence of some disagreement with General Curtis, he was 
at his own request ordered to St. Louis by General Halleck, and 
no opportunity for other service at the moment presenting itself, 
he was ordered to Wisconsin and Illinois to purchase horses for 
the Army. While he was thus occupied Fort Donelson had 
fallen and the great battle of Shiloh had been fought. The 

9 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

spirit of Sheridan could no longer brook these semi-civilian 
duties while his class-mates and brother officers were gathering 
laurels and making great names at the front. Men who at the 
outbreak of the Rebellion had been only his equal in rank, or 
perhaps civilians, were already brigadiers and majors-general in 
command of divisions and Army corps. vSo, leaving the uncon- 
genial work of Purchasing Agent, he proceeded to St. Louis, and 
finding that Halleck had taken the field in person after the battle 
of Shiloh, he reported himself for duty to Captain Kelton, 
Assistant Adjutant-General, and asking for assignment to active 
duty, he was ordered to report to General Halleck in the field 
near Pittsburg Landing. On April 15, 1S62, just one year from 
the surrender of Sumter, he took passage on the hospital boat 
for Pittsburg Landing, where he reported to General Halleck, 
and was assigned to duty in the Qiiartermaster's Department in 
getting up the trains from Pittsburg Landing to the Army, then 
in front of Corinth. General Halleck, pleased with his effi- 
ciency in this capacity, designated him as quartermaster at his 
own headquarters, in which position he continued until the 27th 
day of May, 1S62. The War had now been in progress about 
fifteen months, and yet Captain Sheridan had not seen a hostile 
battalion or heard the whistle of a hostile bullet. One-quarter 
of the entire period of the War had already passed, and Sheri- 
dan, who was to write his name among the three greatest Gen- 
erals it was destined to produce, was still a captain and quarter- 
master. The fortune which then came to him reminds us again 
of the words of the great dramatist, that " There is a tide in the 
affairs of men, which, taken at its flood, leads on to fortune, 
fame and power." 

10 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 
III. 

Colonel Gordon Granger, of the Second Michigan Cavalry, 
had but recently been appointed a Brigadier-General, creating a 
vacancy in the colonelcy of that regiment. Governor Blair, of 
Michigan, accompanied by his Adjntant-General, was at Pitts- 
burg Landing and Corinth, visiting the Michigan regiments with 
special reference to filling this and other vacancies. It will 
perhaps never be determined satisfactorily to whom is due the 
credit of the first suggestion of Sheridan's name. It may have 
been Granger, or it may have been Captain R. A. Alger, of 
Granger's regiment, afterwards Governor of the State of Mich- 
igan, and the life-long friend of Sheridan. It has been claimed 
for both ; but one or both made the suggestion, and Governor 
Blair seems to have been favorably impressed with it ; but the 
difliculty appears to have been in securing the consent of 
General Halfeck to the appointment. There is but little doubt 
but that it was through the intervention of Captain Alger that 
General Halleck at last gave the required consent. Governor 
Blair had already left headquarters, and had proceeded to 
Pittsburg Landing on his return to Michigan. Thither Captain 
Alger, accompanied by a single orderly, followed him, bearing 
Halleck's written consent, and in the cabin of the steamer at 
Pittsburg Landing, Governor Blair, upon a sheet of letter paper, 
bearing the imprint of the Adjutant-General of Michigan, hastily 
wrote out and signed the commission which made Philip H. 
Sheridan colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry, and started 
him on that cai'eer which for rapid development and brilliancy 
scarcely has its equal in the history of war. Back, with his 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

commission, Alger rode all night, from Pittsburg Landing to 
Corinth, and in the early morning of the 27th of May delivered 
the document to Captain Sheridan at Halleck's headquarters. 
The same night, arrayed in the uniform of a captain of infantry, 
to which the shoulder straps of a colonel of cavalry had been 
hastily attached, Sheridan appeared at headquarters and as- 
sumed command of his regiment; and the same night started 
upon the raid to the rear of Corinth against the enemy's com- 
munications at Booneville, which immediately stamped him as a 
born cavalryman. The raid proved an entire success, resulting 
in the capture of locomotives, rolling-stock, small-arms, artillery, 
and inany prisoners. On June 11, two weeks later. Colonel 
Elliott, commanding the brigade, having been promoted to a 
Brigadier-General, Colonel Sheridan took command of the 
brigade. July i, he fought the battle of Booneville upon nearly 
the same ground where he had made his former raid, resulting in 
the complete repulse of General Chalmers' cavalry division, and 
in the recommendation of his own promotion to the rank of 
Brigadier-General. The transfer of General Halleck to Wash- 
ington, and the breaking up of the army which had been concen- 
trated at Corinth, enabled General Bragg, who had succeeded 
Beauregard as Confederate Commander, to start on his march 
through Tennessee and Kentucky to the Ohio River. This ren- 
dered the concentration of troops necessary at Louisville and 
Cincinnati, either of which might be Bragg's objective point. 
Sheridan was ordered to take the Second Michigan Cavalry, 
Second and Fifteenth Missouri, the Thirty-sixth and Forty-fourth 
Illinois (the latter four regiments constituting what was known 
as the "Pea Ridge" brigade) , and proceed to Louisville. He 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

reported at Louisville on September 14, 1863. There he was 
notified of his appointment to the rank of Brigadier-General, to 
take rank from July i, the date of the battle of Booneville. At 
this time General Buell and General Bragg were engaged in a 
foot-race for the Ohio River, with General Buell slightly in 
advance ; but through the delay of General Bragg, for the 
purpose of organizing a Confederate State government. General 
Buell was enabled to reach Louisville first, and to organize his 
forces and prepare to receive General Bragg. In the reor- 
ganized army Sheridan's troops were designated as the nth 
Division of the Army of the Ohio, and he was assigned as 
division commander. On the ist of October Buell moved 
against General Bragg, then in the vicinity of Perryville, and 
Sheridan arrived in front of the enemy at the latter place on 
October 7. His division was a part of the corps of General C. 
C. Gilbert. In the battle which ensued, known as the battle of 
Perryville, or Chaplin Hills, Sheridan's division held the 
centre of the line, but was thrown forward so as to form a salient 
in the line of battle, and bore a most conspicuous part. In this 
first action, in which vSheridan held an important command, 
he displayed all those qualities of quick perception, of prompt 
action, of military discretion, which characterized him through- 
out his career. The battle was a severe and bloody one, 
although it seemed that General Buell, who was not immediately 
upon the field, was scarcely aware that a general action was 
progressing; and but a small part of the Union Army was 
brought into action at all. Bragg, having retired rapidly into 
Tennessee, Sheridan's division was ordered to Nashville, ar- 
riving there early in the month of November. Meanwhile Buell 
13 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

had been relieved of the command of the Army of the Cumber- 
land, and Major-General W. S. Rosecrans had been assigned to 
its command in his place. 

From this time until the latter part of December there is little 
to record. 

IV. 

The Army was reorganized and was engaged in the work 
of drill and discipline to prepare it for the severe campaigns 
that were before it. In the reorganization, Sheridan's di- 
vision became the third division of the right wing. His bri- 
gades were commanded, respectively, by Generals Sill, Shaefer 
and Dan McCook. Afterwards Roberts was substituted for 
McCook. Meanwhile General Bragg had concentrated his army 
in the vicinity of Murfreesboro. McCook's Corps, of which 
Sheridan's division was a part, had the right of Rosecrans' 
line. On December 30, after the usual skirmishing and 
mancEuvring for position, Sheridan forced the Confederates in 
his front within their line of battle. Time will not permit 
detailed description of the battle of Murfreesboro. It is sufficient 
to say that it was one of the fiercest and bloodiest of a most 
bloody war. On the last day of the year 1862 Bragg and 
Rosecrans had each determined to deliver an assault, each 
moving by the left. Upon Bragg's left the Confederate columns 
were commanded by General Hardee, a brilliant soldier and a 
hard fighter. While Rosecrans was preparing to deliver his 
assault from his left, Hardee, more familiar with his ground, and 
more pi'ompt to move, had already fallen with all his force upon 
Rosecrans' right, the greatest severity of the attack falling upon 
14 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Sheridan's division. Tlie troops upon his right having been 
crushed and rolled back, Sheridan was obliged to change his 
position again and again, until before night-fell the entire ground 
which he had occupied in the morning was in the possession of 
the rebel commander. Perhaps no battle of the whole war 
better illustrated the indomitable pluck, persistence and invin- 
cible courage of the American soldiery than the battle of the 
31st of December, 1862. Any other army in the world than 
an army of American soldiers would have left the field ; but 
with a loss more than four times as great in percentage as that 
of Wellington at Waterloo, Rosecrans' army still held the field, 
yielding only inch by inch, and ever ready to resume tbe conflict, 
until at last darkness ended the struggle. Rosecrans gained the 
object of the campaign, the possession of Murfreesboro. In 
this fight Sheridan's division lost 1633 out of a total of 4154 
that it took into action. For his meritorious conduct upon this 
field Sheridan was made a Major-General of volunteers. Now 
followed a long period of inactivity. Both armies were com- 
paratively exhausted. The winter and the spring and much of 
the summer passed in reorganizing and recruiting, in the repair- 
ing of lines of communication, and in fortification of a base of 
operations. Then, from the middle of June until the 4th of 
July, followed the short and almost bloodless Tullahoma cam- 
paign, by which Rosecrans, without a battle, by strategy alone, 
forced Bragg from his fortified position and gained all the 
advantages of a victory. In this campaign Sheridan bore a 
conspicuous part. Then followed the campaign of Chatta- 
nooga. 

Rosecrans, by the rapidity and skill of his movements, had 
15 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 



drawn Bragg out of Chattanooga, which he succeeded in 
seizing, and had transferred his army across the mountains 
into the Valley of the Chickamauga and intervened between 
Bragg's army and Chattanooga, which was the coveted prize 
of the campaign. But the Confederate commander had no 
idea of allowing this prize to slip from his grasp without a 
struggle, and on the 19th and 20th of September, 1S63, was 
fought the bloody and unfortunate battle of Chickamauga. In 
this battle Sheridan with his division again found himself on 
the right of the line. The result of the first day's fighting was 
not decisive. On the second day, September 20, the Confederate 
General had undertaken by a turning movement by his right to 
crush Rosecrans' left, and to drive him from the road to Chat- 
tanooga. At the same time. General Longstreet's corps of 
veterans from the army of the Potomac delivered a terrific 
assault upon the right of Rosecrans' line, and breaking through, 
caught Sheridan as he was on the move to assist the imperilled 
left. Davis's division having been broken and driven back, one 
of Sheridan's brigades was thrown forward in the hope of 
staying the rush of the victorious enemy, but in vain. Lytle's 
and Bradley's brigades were next thrown in to stem the tide, but 
equally in vain. Shattered and broken, and to some extent 
disorganized, they were crushed and forced back. With diffi- 
culty Sheridan succeeded in rallying the fragments of his 
brigades and attempted to retake the ridge, but only to be again 
driven back with the loss of the gallant Lytle, killed upon the 
field. It was at this moment of disaster to and disorganiza- 
tion of the right that Rosecrans and McCook, apparently 
deeming the field lost, and swept along by the wreckage of 
16 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

battle, retired in the direction of Chattanooga, Sheridan now 
attempted to move by the left and join his forces to those of 
Thomas, who was still holding fast ; but finding that the 
enemy had already intervened between him and Thomas, he 
conducted his division back to the village of Rossville, and 
thence forward toward Thomas's position. But night was 
coming on, and it was too late to participate in the action on the 
left. All that could be done was simply to hold fast until dark- 
ness should cover their withdrawal. During the night the 
withdrawal was made to the village of Rossville, the enemy not 
following. There Sheridan's division, with the great body of 
the Army of the Cumberland, remained in line of battle through- 
out the 2ist, ready to accept the gauge of battle which the enemy 
was too much shattered to offer. Sheridan's share in this 
battle could not be considered fortunate, nor yet decisive ; but it 
was not for want of discipline, or courage, or severe fighting. 
Out of the four thousand bayonets that he took into that action 
his loss was more than fifteen hundred. The Union Army 
had gained the object of the campaign — the possession of 
Chattanooga as a new base; but was in a most critical situa- 
tion with reference to its line of supplies, as all supplies and 
forage had to be brought by wagon from Bridgeport. 

On the 22d of September the Army of the Cumberland took 
up position around Chattanooga. General Bragg advanced and 
posted himself, confronting the Union Army, with his left rest- 
ing upon Lookout Mountain, extending across Lookout Valley 
and along the crest of Mission Ridge as far north as the railroad 
tunnel. 

Such was the situation when, on the i6th of October, General 
17 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Rosecrans was relieved from command of the Army of the Cum- 
berland and General Grant was assigned to the command of the 
Military Division of the Mississippi, including that army, to 
which command Genei^al Thomas was now assigned. Mean- 
while, to counteract the accession of Longstreet to General 
Bragg's army. General Hooker, with the 30th Corps, had been 
hurried across the mountains, had arrived at Bridgeport, and 
was now moving to join the Army of the Cumberland. In the 
reorganization which now took place Sheridan's division be- 
came the Second Division of the Fourth Army Corps, General 
Gordon Granger commanding. Connection having been made 
with Hooker's corps, and Sherman, having been brought up 
from Mississippi and carried past Chattanooga, was thrown 
across the Tennessee river near the mouth of the Chickamauga, 
and everything being in readiness for General Grant's contem- 
plated assault, on November 23 General Wood, with his 
division, was ordered to move out and take possession of Orchard 
Knob in front of Chattanooga, and Sheridan, with his division, 
to support him upon the right. It was executed without mishap 
and in accordance with orders. Upon the 24th the attack com- 
menced upon the two flanks. Hooker assaulted Lookout on the 
right, while Sherman thundered at the northern end of Mission 
Ridge, sweeping it south as far as the railroad tunnel. Bragg's 
forces having been thus drawn to his flanks, upon the 25th of 
November General Grant seized the opportunity and delivered 
his main assault upon the center, the Army of the Cumberland 
being pushed out across the intervening plain and thrown upon 
the Rebel entrenchments at the foot of Mission Ridge. It is 
almost impossible at this point to separate the part of General 
18 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Sheridan from the operations of the rest of the line upon his 
right and left. Upon receiving orders to advance, covering his 
front with a cloud of skirmishers, he swept out of the wooded 
plain into the open valley and threw his division without hesita- 
tion upon the enemy's works. Following the Rebel skirmishers 
into their rifle pits, scarcely pausing to take breath, the division 
pushed on and up the steep front of the Ridge. Rained on by 
musketry and artillery, by shot and shell and canister, Sheridan 
found that the only place of comparative security was nearer to 
the Rebel guns. In fact there was no place of security until 
those guns had been silenced. The story is an old one, and too 
oft told for repetition, how, ordered to take the foot of the Ridge, 
he violated the commands of his superior officer by the capture 
of the Ridge. He went over the Rebel breastworks, captured 
Bragg's headquarters, with artillery, prisoners, and flags ; and 
not satisfied with this measure of success swept on over the 
Ridge in hot pursuit, until darkness put an end to the contest. 
And then, still unsatisfied, he pressed the pursuit by moonlight 
until the want of support forbade its further continuance. This 
assault and pursuit develop and exhibit all the military charac- 
teristics of Sheridan— promptness and energy of attack, vigor 
and persistence of pursuit as long as it was possible to strike a 
blow. In this attack Sheridan lost out of a total of 6,000 
officers and men in his division, 123 officers and 1,181 men. 
Now followed the East Tennessee campaign for the relief of 
General Burnside, then beleaguered at Knoxville by General 
Longstreet. But before General Sherman, of whose force 
Sheridan's division constituted a portion, could reach Knox- 
ville, Longstreet had taken timely warning, had raised the siege 
19 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN, 



and moved up the valley. The operations follow^ing during the 
months of December, 1863, and January, February, and March, 
1864, are not of sufficient significance to warrant detail. 



The first half of March, 1864, found vSheridan, with his 
division, holding the bridge across the Tennessee river at 
Loudon, when, on the T2th of March, General Grant was 
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General and assigned 
to the command of all the armies of the United States and 
ordered to report at Washington. On the 23d of March 
following, General Sheridan was summoned to Washington 
and ordered to take command of the cavalry of the Army 
of the Potomac. It is said that this selection of General 
Sheridan to command the cavalry of the army, notwith- 
standing the fact that he had never commanded a larger 
body of cavalry than a brigade, was due to a suggestion of 
General Halleck. When in conversation with General Grant, 
the latter remarked that he was looking for a man to take com- 
mand of the Cavalry Corps, General Halleck replied, "Why 
not take Sheridan?" to which General Grant responded, " The 
very man," and forthwith ordered him by telegraph to report 
for duty. With characteristic promptitude, without taking 
formal leave of his command, on the following day General 
Sheridan left Loudon, and arriving at Washington on the 4th 
of April, reported at once to Genei*al Halleck. This was their 
first meeting since, on the 37th of May, 1S62, Sheridan had left 
Halleck's headquarters to take command of the 2d Michigan 
20 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Cavalry. General Halleck took Sheridan at once to the War 
Department to introduce him to the Secretary of War, Mr. 
Stanton. General Sheridan has himself, in his memoirs, 
graphically described this interview, as follows : 

" During the ceremony of introduction I could feel that Mr. 
Stanton was eyeing me closely and searchingly, endeavoring to 
form some estimate of one about whom he knew absolutely 
nothing, and whose career probably had never been called to 
his attention until Gen. Grant decided to order me East after my 
name had been suggested by Gen. Halleck in an interview the 
two Generals had with Mr. Lincoln. I was rather young in 
appearance, looking even under than over 33 years, but five feet 
five inches in height, and thin almost to emaciation, weighing 
only 115 pounds. If I had ever possessed any self-assertion in 
manner or speech, it certainly vanished in the presence of the 
imperious Secretary, whose name at the time was the synonym 
of all that was cold and formal." 

On the following day, April 5, 1S64, Gen. Sheridan set out 
to join his command, near Culpeper Court-House, Va., and on 
the way on board the cars he fell in with Gen. Grant, with 
whom he undoubtedly discussed the plans of the campaign and 
the uses to be made of the cavalry. The same evening he 
reported to Gen. Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, 
at his headquarters near Culpeper Court-House, who pointed out 
to him in a general way the location of the Calvary Corps, and 
the same evening Gen. Sheridan reached his new command, 
and on the next morning formally assumed command in orders. 

The Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac at this time 
consisted of tliree divisions and twelve batteries of horse artillery. 
21 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

These three divisions were commanded by three men well fitted 
to be the subordinates of Sheridan, namely, Torbert, Gregg 
and Wilson. These were all young men. Torbert and Gregg 
liad been at the Academy two years during Sheridan's term, 
having graduated in 1855, while Wilson had only graduated the 
year before the outbreak of the war. They were all trained, 
professional soldiers, full of the ambition of youth, and ever 
ready to respond to the spirit of their Commander. Heretofore 
the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, although formidable 
in numbers, had been so reduced in strength by details and 
divisions that it had never been very formidable as a fighting- 
force. Instead of being consolidated into a compact body that 
could be wielded by a single mind, and hurled upon the enemy's 
lines as an irresistible power, it had been separated into divisions 
and brigades for outpost duty, guarding of trains and lines of 
communication, for scouting and raiding, but not for heavy 
fighting. This was not in accordance with Sheridan's view of 
the proper use of cavalry. He believed that cavalry might be 
made a fighting arm as well as infantry, and that by its greater 
celerity of movement, in many respects, made more formidable 
than infantry. Heretofore the cavalry of the Army of the 
Potomac had been fingers only ; now, under Sheridan, it was 
to become a fist. Heretofore it had been tentacles to feel the 
position of the enemy ; now it was to become a sting. Hereto- 
fore it had been " the eyes of the Army," to see the position and 
movement of its antagonist; now it was to deliver deadly blows. 
But this was not the conception of Gen. Meade, the Commander 
of the Army of the Potomac. He had not been accustomed to 
the use of cavalry as a separate fighting corps to be under the 
22 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

direction of a single mind, and now there arose a difference of 
opinion between the Commander of the Army and the Com- 
mander of the Cavalry Corps as to the use to be made of the 
latter, which was never satisfactorily settled until Sheridan had 
demonstrated by actual example the value of the cavalry as a 
fighting arm. 

VI. 

On May 4, 1864, the Army of the Potomac broke camp at 
Culpeper Court-house, Va., and, with the three divisions of cav- 
alry in advance, crossing by different fords, passed the Rapidan 
and inaugurated the ever-memorable campaign of the Wilder- 
ness. It will be impossible to go into details of movements. 
During the battles of the Wilderness the cavalry was invaluable 
in covering the flanks of the army, in protecting its rear, in 
shielding its trains, and in keeping the enemy's cavalry more 
than fully employed. Once, indeed, it had taken possession of 
Spottsylvania Court-House, and had it then been properly 
supported, had Sheridan been left untrammelled and uninter- 
fered with to carry out his plans, it is almost beyond question 
that he would have continued to hold Spottsylvania, and the 
bloody and memorable battles afterwards fought for its posses- 
sion would have been rendered unnecessary. 

As a result of some interference by the Commander of the 
Army of the Potomac with Gen. Sheridan's directions for the 
movement of his several divisions, resulting in the necessary 
withdrawal from Spottsylvania, a somewhat heated, or, as 
Sheridan says, " peppery," interview occurred between these 
two Commanders, which resulted, the same evening, in an order 
23 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

from General Meade to Sheridan to take the cavalry corps and 
proceed against the enemy's cavalry, and when his supplies had 
been exhausted to proceed to Haxall's Landing on the James 
River, and there to communicate with General Butler and return 
again to the Army of the Potomac. 

Long before the break of day on the following morning Sher- 
idan's cavalry were in motion. Moving around the right of Lee's 
army, and paying no attention to Lee's cavalry beyond keeping a 
careful watch upon it, Sheridan the same night reached the 
North Anna at Anderson's Ford, and encamped Merritt's division 
beyond that stream, while Custer's brigade was detatched and 
ordered to proceed to Beaver Dam Station on the Virginia Cen- 
tral Railroad and do all the damage practicable. This he easily 
did, breaking up the railroad, capturing large numbers of pris- 
oners, destroying locomotives, trains, wagons, telegraph lines, 
and more than a million rations, together with nearly all the 
medical stores of General Lee's army. This was the first day's 
work. On the morning of the loth Sheridan crossed the re- 
mainder of his force over the North Anna and continued on his 
way towards Richmond. 

General J. E. B. Stuart, then in command of the Confederate 
cavalry of the Army of Nortliern Virginia, at first did not appre- 
hend Gen. Sheridan's plan of campaign, and concentrated his 
force at Beaver Dam, as if to fight a battle at that point. But 
when he realized that Sheridan was moving as rapidly as pos- 
sible in the direction of Richmond, he made all haste, if possi- 
ble, to pass him and to intervene between Sheridan's troopers 
and the Confederate capital. Endeavoring in vain to delay 
Sheridan by attacking his rear, which attack Sheridan shook 
24 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

oft' without delaying the movement of his main column, he suc- 
ceeded on the morning of the nth in interposing in front of 
Sheridan at Yellow Tavern, six miles from the city of Rich- 
mond. It was here occurred the first general cavalry battle 
fought during our War, and perhaps, considered all in all, the 
most notable example of the handling of great masses of mounted 
men furnished by the War of the Rebellion. No infantry was 
engaged upon either side. 

It is not within the scope of this memoir, nor will space permit, 
to enter into details of the tactics of this battle. It is sufficient 
to say that it was gallandy and desperately contested upon either 
side. Charge was met by counter-charge, and it was here that 
the gallant General Custer distinguished himself and his brigade 
in a mounted saber charge that swept everything before it, and 
which had few parallels in the entire history of the War, thereby 
drawing upon himself the encomiums of his commander and 
laying the foundation of his subsequent conspicuous career. 
Stuart was driven entirely from the road to Richmond, himself 
falling at the head of his command — one of the most serious 
Confederate losses of that day. 

General Sheridan, having opened the road to Richmond, 
now passed within the outer line of the fortifications of that 
city, and it was supposed by the Confederate authorities that he 
was about to attempt to enter ; but that was at no time any part 
of his purpose. Passing around within the outer works in the 
direction of Fair Oaks, he found his course obstructed by hastily- 
gathered infantry, and, upon endeavoring to cross the Chickahom- 
iny, he found that the bridges had been destroyed. Undoubtedly 
the Confederate military authorities expected, if not to destroy, 
25 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

at least to very greatly cripple Sheridan's cavalry ; but Sheri- 
dan, always fertile in resources, was not to be caught in any 
such trap. On the 1 2th he rebuilt Meadow's bridge across the 
Chickahominy, and proceeded well-nigh unmolested to the 
James River, where he turned over to General Butler the 
wounded brought with him, together with the trophies of his 
campaign. In a five days' campaign Sheridan had marched 
from the Rapidan to the James, had destroyed the enemy's com- 
munications, had captured and destroyed vast quantities of sup- 
plies, had whipped the enemy's cavalry in an open, pitched bat- 
tle, had captured many prisoners, had demoralized the enemy's 
force, and had inspired his own troopers with confidence in 
themselves and in their General, which made them from this time 
forth almost invincible. After a brief halt at the James, on the 
17th he set out upon his return, rebuilding the bridge across 
Pamunkey River at White House. He reported to General 
Meade at Chesterfield on the 24th, and again assumed his position 
upon the front and flanks of the Army of the Potomac. From 
this time until after the battle of Cold Harbor the cavalry did not 
operate independently. They were everywhere present, protect- 
ing the flanks in its movements by the left, seizing upon desired 
crossings of streams in their front, and everywhere indispensable 
to the advance of the army. At Havves' Shop and at Cold Har- 
bor, on the 31st, they fought severe engagements with the enemy's 
cavalry, heavily supported by their infantry. The services of 
Sheridan in seizing and holding the important strategic point 
at Cold Harbor could hardly be overestimated. 

General Grant having determined to continue his movements 
by the left and to cross the James River, and designing to draw 
26 



PHILIP HKNRY SHERIDAN. 

oft' the enemy's cavalry while the movement was in progress, 
directed Sheridan to proceed on an expedition to Charlottesville 
with two divisions to destroy the enemy's communications. He 
commenced the movement upon the 7th, crossing to the north 
side of the Pamunkey, and on the Sth reached Polecat Station ; 
on the 9th he marched along the north bank of the North Anna ; 
he bivouacked at Northeast Creek ; on the loth, resuming the 
march, he crossed the North Anna at Carpenter's Ford, and 
camped along the road leading to Trevilian's Station. Here 
during the night it became manifest that the enemy's cavalry was 
in force in his immediate vicinity, now under the command of 
General Wade Hampton, who had succeeded General Stuart. 
On the night of the loth Hampton's cavalry encamped near 
Trevilian's Station, and Fitzhugh Lee's division was not far 
from Louisa Court-House, six miles east of Trevilian's. On the 
nth occurred the memorable cavalry fight at Trevilian's Station. 
While Sheridan with his main force attacked Hampton in front 
he sent Custer with his brigade by a detour through the woods 
to come in upon Hampton's rear, not knowing that Fitzhugh 
Lee with his division was closing in from Louisa Court-House in 
the same direction. Custer executed his part of the movement 
with success, but while he was attacking Hampton's rear he 
found himself attacked in turn by Fitzhugh Lee, who had fol- 
lowed him toward Trevilian's. Thus, at one time, Custer found 
himself almost entirely surrounded, but, forming his brigade into 
a circle, and fighting both front and rear, he maintained his 
position until Sheridan with the remainder of his force had 
pressed back Hampton's division and driven him from the field, 
relieving Custer from his perilous situation, then in turn driving 
Fitzhugh Lee towards Louisa Court-House. 

27 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

General Sheridan, finding it impracticable, by reason of the 
proximity of Breckinridge's division of infantry, to proceed to 
Charlottesville, recrossed the North Anna at Carpentei-'s Ford, 
after having thoroughly destroyed the railroad communications, 
and, by a wide detour, crossing the old battle-grounds at Spott- 
sylvania, returned down the north bank of the Mattapony to 
White House, and thence escorting the trains of the Army of 
the Potomac to the James, fighting a severe engagement for their 
protection. On the 2t;th of June he rejoined the Army of the 
Potomac in front of Petersburg, south of the James River. 
With the exception of the expedition to Deep Bottom, which 
was a diversion planned by General Grant preliminary to the 
springing of the Mine and the advance upon Petersburg on the 
30th of July, this completed Sheridan's active service with 
the Army of the Potomac during the year 1S64. 



VII. 



General Early, with a column sufficiently formidable to 
frighten the authorities at Washington, had crossed the Potomac 
above Harper's Ferry, had crossed the Monocacy, and had 
advanced to the very works of Washington, and what further 
might have ensued had he not there been met by the veterans of 
the 6th Corps, under General Wright, can only be conjectured. 
Early had been pushed back from Washington, and had taken 
refuge in that favorite marching and foraging ground of Con- 
federate Generals — Shenandoah Valley. 

General Grant now determined to send to the Valley a Com- 
mander who would be competent to cope with Early, and 

28 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

who could quiet the agitation of the people of Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, and relieve the nervousness of the authorities at 
Washington. He selected Sheridan as the proper man, and 
on the ist day of August he was relieved from the command of 
the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac and ordered to 
report at Washington. General Sheridan arrived in Washing- 
ton on August 4, and on the 6th reported to General Grant, who 
was then in person at Monocacy Junction, Maryland, and 
received his instructions for the campaign in the Shenandoah. 
The Shenandoah Valley, stretching between the Blue Ridge 
upon the east and the Alleghenies upon the west, was one of the 
most fertile as well as one of the most beautiful valleys in the 
whole Union. From the beginning of the war it had been the 
granary of the Confederacy. It had furnished a vast number of 
soldiers, both regular and irregular, for the Confederate army ; 
it had supplied a convenient avenue through which, protected 
by the Blue Ridge on the east, hostile columns could march to 
the Potomac and threaten the Northern States. And, in short, 
it had constantly been a thorn in the side of the Army of the 
Potomac, because it furnished so convenient a base of operations 
against the right flank of that army, li was, therefore, not alone 
to fight and to crush General Early's military force that Sheri- 
dan was sent to the Shenandoah, but it was more. It was to 
destroy the Shenandoah Valley as a source of warlike strength 
and support to the Confederacy, and as standing ground for 
hostile forces to threaten Maryland and the Federal Capital. It 
was for this reason that General Grant, in his instructions to 
General Sheridan, under date of August 5, said: "Nothing 
should be left to invite the return of the enemy ;" " such as can- 

29 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

not be consumed should be destroyed." War is not carried on 
by men alone. Material is as necessary as men. Supplies are as 
important a part of a military force as the personnel. This fact 
must be an all-sufficient justification of General Grant's order to 
General Sheridan. General Grant's order is more than a 
sufficient justification of Sheridan's execution of Grant's wishes. 

A new military department, known as the Middle Military Di- 
vision, was created out of the Departments of Washington, the 
Susquehanna, West Virginia, and the Middle Department, and 
General Sheridan was placed in command of this new Division. 
At the time he assumed command of this Division, on August 6, 
the enemy's forces extended from Williamsport to Martinsburg, 
covering and holding possession of the Baltimore & Ohio rail- 
road, with their right extending up the valley, holding open the 
avenue of retreat, and the left on the Potomac, ready, should 
circumstances indicate, to cross that river into Maryland or 
Pennsylvania. Sheridan now, for the first time, found himself 
in command of an army, denominated the Army of the Shen- 
andoah. It was encamped along the Monocacv, between the 
Monocacy and Harper's Ferry, and from Harper's Ferry to 
Halltown. Other troops were en route from West Virginia, and 
still others from the Army of the Potomac. It consisted of the 
6th Army Corps, under General Wright, with three divisions 
under Russell, Ricketts, and Getty ; all trained, professional 
soldiers; two small divisions (really constituting one small di- 
vision) from the Army of West Virginia, under General Crook, 
one division of the 19th Army Corps, under General Emory, and 
two divisions of cavalry under Torbert and Averill. 

At this point we enter upon an entirely new development of 
30 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Sheridan's military genius and of his character as a soldier. 
Now, for the first time, he comes in command of a large body, 
both of infantry and of cavalry, of which he holds the supreme 
command and beyond the eye of any immediate superior. Now 
it is for him not only to execute, but to conceive plans of cam- 
paign, and now his real genius, not only as a tactician and as 
a deliverer of sturdy blows, but his higher genius as a strategist, 
in conceiving movements beyond the sight and reach of the 
enemy, shines out in hitherto unknown brilliancy. No sooner 
had he assumed command of this new army than he ordered its 
immediate concentration upon Halltown, a village a few miles in 
advance of Harper's Ferry, and by the loth of August, or four 
days after his assumption of the command, he had his army 
practically in hand and ready for operations. The orders issued 
and the dispositions made indicate, beyond doubt, that Sher- 
idan intended to deliver a general battle against the enemy, near 
Winchester, on the following day, the nth. But when he 
moved his columns to attack, it was discovered that Early had 
eluded him and had retired up the valley. Sheridan followed 
as far as Strasburg and Cedar Creek, when, being advised by 
General Grant that heavy bodies of infantry and artillery, together 
with Fitzhugh Lee's division of cavalry, were marching to rein- 
force Early, he retired slowly and deliberately down the valley, 
and took up a defensive position once more at Halltown, where 
his left was protected by the Shenandoah and his right by the 
Potomac, destroying, as he retired, all forage, and driving away 
all stock that would be useful to the enemy, he awaited the fur- 
ther development of the enemy's designs. 

On the 1 6th Sheridan had a partial engagement with 
31 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 



Kershaw's division near Front Royal, in which the decided 
advantage remained with Sheridan's cavah-y. On the 17th he 
retired beyond the line of the Opequan, and from this time for 
nearly a month there were no operations of a character that 
warrant more than a general reference. 

Abont the ist of September, General Lee calling for the recall 
of Kershaw's division to Petersburg, that General having set out 
upon his return, not knowing the disposition of Sheridan's 
forces, upon the 3d runs into General Crook's lines at Berry ville, 
and, after a sharp encounter, retires considerably the worse for 
the engagement. 

About the 14th of September it came to General Sheridan's 
knowledge that Kershaw had once more started for Petersburg, 
and that this time he had succeeded in getting away. Learning, 
also, that at about the same time General Early had detached a 
portion of his force towards the Potomac, and that they had 
proceeded as far as Bunker Hill, Sheridan decided that this 
was the opportunity for which he had waited, that he might 
fall upon the Confederate force, in detail, and, as he hoped, 
annihilate General Early's army. On the iSth of September 
he issued his orders for the crossing of the Opequan and 
the attack upon Early near Winchester. Sheridan's plan of 
battle was to attack the portion of Early's army remaining in the 
vicinity of Winchester before the divisions detached in the 
direction of the Potomac could rejoin them, and by throwing a 
portion of his force across the Valley turnpike at Newton, south 
of Winchester, to cut oft' Early's line of retreat, and to capture 
or destroy the whole of his force. He was delayed in this 
movement by a summons to meet General Grant at Charlestown, 
32 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 



where he laid before tlie General commanding the situation ot 
the armies and his plan of campaign. 

VIII. 

General Grant found that he had a commander to whom it 
was only necessary to say '' Go in," and he would accomplish 
all that was possible to military science, courage and persistence. 
General Sheridan returned to his headquarters on the night of 
the iSth, and issued the necessary orders for the movement of 
his army before daylight of the 19th. General Early's army was 
occupying a position about two miles to the east of Winchester 
facing eastward, his right resting upon Abraham's Creek, and 
the left protected by the marshes along Red Bud Run. General 
Sheridan's plan of batde was predicated upon the absence of 
the divisions of Rhodes and Wharton, and upon being able to 
throw his forces across the Opequan, and attack Early in his 
position before these divisions could rejoin. In order to do this, 
and to reach Early's front, there was but one feasible crossing of 
Opequan — that on the Berryville Pike, near the mouth of Abra- 
ham's Creek. This road, after crossing the creek, passes for a 
considerable distance through a defile or gorge, with a difficult 
debouchment, and was the only avenue by which to reach Early's 
line. These circumstances came very near defeating Sheridan's 
entire plan, for so much time was occupied in getting his troops 
across and deployed in front of the Confederate position that it 
was already past the middle of the day before he was prepared 
to deliver his assault, which he had hoped to make early in the 
morning. At the break of day Wilson led the attack with his 
33 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

division of cavalry, and driving back the enemy's advance, made 
room for the deployment of the 6th Army Corps, to the right 
and left of the Berryville pike, Wilson protecting its left flank by 
throv^ing a portion of his division to the left of Abraham's 
Creek, while Emory brought forward the 19th Army Corps and 
placed it upon the right of the 6th, and Crook pressed through 
the long and narrow gorge and massed his corps to the rear, 
Sheridan intending to use it as a movable column, to strike 
and hold the Valley pike to the south of Winchester, and cut off 
the enemy's retreat ; but so much of the day had been consumed 
in this deployment that already the two divisions of Wharton 
and Rhodes had either rejoined Early or were within striking 
distance. It was past midday wdien Sheridan pressed forward 
the line thus adjusted, but met with such furious and obstinate 
opposition that he was obliged to change his plan and put Crook 
into the fight as a turning column upon his right. Meanwhile, 
the right division of the 6th Corps had met with such fierce 
resistance that it at one time experienced a serious repulse, and 
the gallant Russell, leading his men again into the fight, fell 
mortally wounded at the head of his command. Russell, in the 
days when Sheridan had been a Second Lieutenant, had been 
his Captain, and his loss was most seriously felt by the General. 
Readjusting his lines, with Crook thrown forward upon Early's 
left flank by a grand left wheel, he once more pressed the 
enemy's lines with such energy that they gave way at all points, 
while Torbert, advancing upon the Valley pike from Stevenson's 
Station to Winchester, with Averill and Merritt, drove the 
enemy's cavalry pell-mell into and through Winchester ; and, in 
the graphic language of Sheridan in his dispatch to General 
34 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Grant, sent his columns "whirling through Winchester" in 
retreat. 

B}' the delay in the formation in the earlier part of the day 
the battle of Winchester was prevented from being that com- 
plete victory which Sheridan had hoped ; but nevertheless the 
victory was decisive, Winchester was gained, and Early was in 
full retreat up the Valley. The losses in killed, wounded, and 
prisoners were not far from equal upon either side, but the entire 
moral advantage was with the Union Army. Sheridan had 
captured five pieces of artillery and nine battle flags ; he had 
relieved the Valley of the presence of the enemy from the Poto- 
mac to Strasburg ; he had released the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
road ; he had relieved the Government from all further solicitude 
as to the safety of Maryland and Pennsylvania. But this was 
not its most important result. The country was at this time 
under a cloud of deep depression arising from our disastrous de- 
feat at Petersburg on the 30th of July, and the subsequent inac- 
tivity of the Army of the Potomac, as well as from the check 
which had been experienced by Sherman in front of Atlanta, and 
the general stand-still to which the Union cause had come 
through the midsummer of 1S64. »Sheridan's brilliant victory 
at Winchester, and the thrilling and enthusiastic dispatch in 
which he announced it, I'aised the enthusiasm of the country to 
the highest pitch, dispelled this cloud of discouragement, and 
infused new hope and vigor into all our armies and their com- 
manders. But this was only the beginning of a series of most 
remarkable victories, which resulted within a single month in 
restoring the entire Valley of the Shenandoah to the permanent 
possession of the Union Army, and in again and again sending 
35 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

waves of enthusiasm throughout the length and breadth of the 
loyal North. One of the peculiarities of Sheridan's general- 
ship was that he not only delivered hard blows, but he followed 
blow upon blow, giving his antagonist no time or opportunity to 
recover from the effect of the first. 

The smoke had scarcely lifted from the battle-field of the 19th 
of September when orders were issued to Sheridan's army to 
commence the pursuit at the break of day on the morning of the 
20th, and, in obedience to these orders, before the rising of the 
sun, Sheridan's cavalry were pressing hard up the Valley after 
the disorganized and demoralized rear of Early's force. All day 
long throughout the 20th Sheridan continued the pursuit, 
gathering up stragglers, wagons, and arms ; but Early attempted 
to make no stand until, after having passed through Strasburg, 
he took position upon a strong line at Fisher's Hill, his right 
protected by the great bend of the West Fork of the Shenandoah 
and his left by North Mountain. Here all day, the 21st, Sher- 
idan confronted him, whilst he made his dispositions for the 
coming battle. Pressing Early along his whole front, and 
threatening him with a turning movement upon his left, Crook 
was brought across Cedar Creek and concealed in the dense 
timber behind Hupp's Hill until daylight of the 22d, when he 
was moved beyond the sight of the enemy, and concealed not far 
from the back road along the enemy's left. When Crook had 
well gained the rear of the enemy's position, moving in two par- 
allel columns, he changed direction by the left flank, bringing his 
division into two parallel lines of battle, with which he swept 
along the rear of the enemy's line, while Sheridan delivered his 
main assault with his remaining force in front. At the same 
36 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

moment, Ricketts, who occupied the right, swinging forward 
with a grand left wheel, joined the left of Crook's command, and 
this movement being taken up throughout the line, in a few 
moments Early's army was driven in confusion from their works, 
and were in full retreat up the Valley, the only emulation among 
them being which should first get away and save themselves from 
capture. The stampede was complete, Early abandoning nearly 
all the artillery and other property in the works, his force being 
scattered through the woods and fields in a disorganized route. 
Sheridan gave them no rest, but throwing forward Wright and 
Emory in pursuit, kept up the race until nightfall. Early at- 
tempted to make a stand on the high ground between Fisher's 
Hill and Woodstock, where some pieces of artillerv were put in 
position, only to fall into our hands. The chase was again taken 
up and continued throughout the night, and the daylight of the 
next morning found the fugitives still pressing on up the Valley, 
with vSheridan's now invincible troopers in eager pursuit. The 
pursuit continued throughout the 33d, but owing to the foilure of 
the cavalry under Torbert, who had been sent to force a passage 
through Luray Valley, for the purpose of coming in upon the 
enemy's rear at New Market, and of Averill to take the assigned 
part in the pursuit, it did not result as Sheridan had hoped — in 
the destruction or capture of Early's army. For his failure to 
exhibit what Sheridan considered a proper zeal at this juncture, 
Averill was relieved from his command and Powell assigned to 
his division. Upon the 24th the Confederates attempted to make 
a stand a short distance south of Mount Jackson, but when they 
observed through the open country Sheridan's columns encom- 
passing both of their flanks, they fell back precipitately to New 
37 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Market, a short distance beyond which they left the Valley pike, 
deflecting toward Port Republic in order more readily to form 
connection with Kershaw's infantry, advancing from that direc- 
tion. Upon the 25th the remnant of Early's force disappeared 
from Sheridan's front. Sheridan now brought forward his 
infantry and placed them in camp at Harrisonburg, sending 
Merritt as far as Port Republic to observe the enemy in that 
quarter, and dispatching Torbert and Wilson to Staunton and to 
Waynesboro to destroy the railroad bridges at that point. Here 
they were attacked by Pegram's infantry advancing to reinforce 
Early, and fell back upon the main body, destroying crops, 
driving ofl' animals, burning mills and factories, and generally 
making the country as untenable as possible to the enemy. At 
the same time Kershaw's division fell upon Merritt at Fort Re- 
public, and Merritt was forced for the time being to withdraw. 
Thereupon Sheridan advanced the 6th and 19th Corps to 
Mount Crawford, establishing and holding a line substantially 
extending across the Valley from Port Republic along North 
River by Mount Crawford, to the back road near the mouth of 
Briar Branch Gap. This disposition of his forces continued 
without material change until October 6. Meanwhile Wilson 
had been detailed as Chief of Cavalry to General vSherman, and 
had withdrawn from the Army of the Shenandoah, General 
Custer taking his place as Division Commander. At this junc- 
ture the serious question presented itself to Sheridan's mind 
whether he should follow up the campaign in the Valley by 
forcing Early back through the gaps of the Blue Ridge and carry 
the campaign into Eastern Virginia ; but for reasons to him 
conclusive, notwithstanding General Grant's opinion to the con- 
38 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

trary, he decided not to follow Early beyond the Ridge, and to 
withdraw his force further down the Valley, taking a strong 
position in the vicinity of Strasburg, and during his withdrawal 
to destroy everything that could be of value to the enemy for the 
prosecution of the war, in the way of crops, stock, mills, fac- 
tories, and material of every kind. 

On October 5, General Thomas W. Rosser joined Early with 
an additional brigade and took chief command of the cavalry. 
Rosser came with a considerable flourish of trumpets, his brigade 
decorated with sprigs of laurel, denominating themselves the 
" Laurel Brigade," and Rosser himself was hailed as the " savior 
of the Valley." Encouraged by these re-enforcements, the 
enemy's cavalry gathered considerable confidence and commenced 
annoying the rear of Sheridan's column. Sheridan, irritated 
by this, decided to stop one day and settle this new cavalry com- 
mander. Halting on the evening of the 7th near Tom's Creek, 
between Woodstock and Strasburg, he directed General Torbert 
to take his two divisions and go out the next morning, and either 
whip Rosser or get whipped. Torbert choose the former alter- 
native, and the whipping was performed with neatness and 
dispatch on the morning of the 9th, the pursuit being continued 
through and beyond Woodstock, and not discontinued until more 
than twenty-five miles had been covered. In this battle, which 
was fought chiefly mounted, perhaps a freer use was made of the 
saber at close quarters than in any cavalry action hitherto. 

IX. 

On October 10, Sheridan resumed his retrograde movement 
and took up strong position on the north side of Cedar Creek, 
39 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

holding that line with Crook's and Emory's corps, while the 6th 
Corps was ordered to Washington by the way of Ashby's Gap. 
Learning, however, that Early had arrived at Fisher's Hill with 
all his forces, Sheridan- ordered the return of the 6th Corps to 
Cedar Creek, where it arrived on the 14th. On the evening of 
the 15th, in answer to a summons from the vSecretary of War, 
Gen. Sheridan started to Washington by the way of Front Royal, 
taking with him the whole of Torbert's cavalry, which he in- 
tended, after passing Front Royal, to dispatch to Charlottesville 
for the purpose of destroying the railroad communications of the 
enemy, while he with an escort should proceed to Washington. 
On the 1 6th he was arrested en route to Washington by a 
dispatch from General Wright covering a dispatch purporting to 
come from General Longstreet to General Early, which gave him 
much perplexity, indicating that Longstreet was advancing with 
a large force which he intended to unite with Early, and fill 
suddenly upon Sheridan to surprise and crush him. Sheridan 
distrusted the genuineness of this dispatch, but still did not feel 
at liberty to ignore it. He therefore ordered Torbert with his 
cavalry back to General Wright, while he proceeded from 
Rectorville to Washington by rail, and after a hasty conference 
with the Secretary of War and Chief of Staff' on the 17th, he 
returned on the same night as far as Martinsburg, whence he 
proceeded on the iSth to Winchester. On the morning of the 19th 
of October, Shfjridan was awakened by the distant sounds of 
battle, but supposing it was only the result of a reconnaissance 
in force which he had ordered, he at first felt no uneasiness ; but 
as the distant rumble of the battle continued, he hastily ordered 
his breakfast, and mounting his favorite horse " Rienzi," he set 
40 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

out to ascertain the meaning of these ominous sounds. The day 
which ensued was the most famous as well as the most dramatic 
in the whole of Sheridan's life — a day that has been embalmed 
in song and story, and forms, perhaps, the most romantic chap- 
ter in the history of the War; a day in which one man, by his 
presence, by his indomitable will, by his just confidence in his 
men, and their confidence in him, brought victory out of defeat, 
i-allied a broken army, reunited and welded it into an invincible 
phalanx, and hurled it with resistless force upon a victorious 
enemy, crushing and driving him from the camps which he had 
captured and from the battle-field which he had won, in rout and 
disorder and ruin. This story has been so often and dramatically 
told both in prose and poetry that one is not justified in pausing 
upon its details. As Sheridan rode out from Winchester on 
the Valley pike to the southward, and the sounds of battle came 
to his practiced ear with greater and greater distinctness, he 
became convinced that the tide of war was moving to the north- 
ward, and as he rose over the eminence south of Mill Creek there 
burst upon his astonished vision the spectacle of the broken and 
disorganized fragments of a defeated army. Nothing despairing, 
he pressed forward toward the front, dropping a word of cheer 
and encouragement here and there as he passed, until about mid- 
way between the villages of Newtown and Middletown he 
came upon Getty's division stretched across the Valley pike, 
while Ricketts' and Wheaton's divisions of the 6th Corps occu- 
pied a position to their right and rear, and what remained of the 
19th Corps was still to the right and rear of these. The cavalry 
under Torbert occupied a position in advance of the infantry, 
extending across the Valley about three miles north of the posi- 
41 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

tion that the army had occupied in the morning. There it had 
been attacked in the early dawning by a sudden and silent move- 
ment of the enemy under the cover of a dense fog, and before 
the lines could be organized had been driven from their camps, 
and in the ensuing disorder and demoralization had hitherto been 
unable to make a successful stand. Sheridan, with his instinctive 
military sense and his keen perception of topographical positions, 
took in the situation at a glance. With him, to see was to act. 
It took no time for him to decide that the ground was to be 
regained, and that the enemy was to be beaten. To think was 
to do. At once in his mind was formulated the plan of battle. 
Stragglers were brought up from the rear ; the diflerent divisions 
were moved to the positions which they were to occupy ; orders 
were dispatched to the cavalry defining the parts which they 
were to take, and Sheridan, accompanied by his staff, rode 
along in front of the lines from flank to flank, in order that the 
men might be inspired with the assurance that Sheridan him- 
self was upon the field. Wherever he rode he was greeted with 
the cheers of the men, and his very presence was equal to a re- 
enforcement of an army corps. 

It was not far from half-past ten when Sheridan arrived 
upon the field. He had but partially rearranged his lines when 
the enemy made an advance and assaulted Emory's front. This 
attack was easily repulsed, but the repulse was not followed up, 
as Sheridan was not as yet fully prepared. By half-past three 
in the evening Sheridan had his army once more firmly in 
hand. The line had been compactly formed, confidence had 
been restored, and everything was in readiness to deliver the 
assault. When the word was given to advance, the line sprang 
42 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN- 

forward with confidence and enthusiasm. The cavahy pushed 
in upon the flanks, and the infantry assaulted along the whole 
front, and it was not long before the entire Confederate line gave 
way. 

The old camps at Cedar Creek were soon regained, but this 
was not enough. Merritt and Custer having swept around the 
enemy's left, united their columns near Strasburg and again fell 
upon the flank of the retreating army, taking many prisoners, 
guns, wagons and munitions. For this remarkable victory Pres- 
ident Lincoln, in an autograph letter, tendered General Sheridan 
the thanks of himself and of the whole nation, and appointed 
him a Major-General in the regular Army. Among the results 
of this battle was the recapture of all the artillery, equipage and 
trains which had been taken from us in the morning, together 
with twenty-four pieces of artillery and many battle flags cap- 
tured from the enemy. The battle of Cedar Creek practically 
terminated for the year 1S64 the campaign of the Shenandoah. 

General Sheridan, having accomplished the object of his 
campaign in the Valley, withdrew his army to the vicinity of 
Kernstown. Near the middle of December he dispatched the 
6th Army Corps to the Army of the Potomac, and General 
Early in like manner returned most of his cavalry to join Lee's 
army. 

X. 

No further general operations were engaged in before spring, 

the principal incidents of the winter being raids into Loudon 

County for the destruction of crops and property, and to Gor- 

donsville for the purpose of breaking up railroad communications. 

43 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Sheridan put his cavalry into camp near Winchester, where 
they remained with but slight exception until the latter part of 
February. On the 37th of the latter month General Sheridan 
entered upon the last of his great raids with about 10,000 men, 
in two divisions, under Custer and Devin. The objective of this 
campaign was, if possible, to capture the city of Lynchburg, to 
break up the Virginia Central Railroad and destroy the James 
River canal, and all of the lines of supply of Lee's army ; then 
to cross the James River and join General Sherman in the 
Carolinas. On March i, 1S65, General Sheridan with his 
army reached Mount Crawford, where Rosser had gathered a 
small force and showed the first resistance to his advance ; but 
he was quickly driven off with losses, and did not again appear. 
Early now concentrated what force he had remaining, a small 
division of infantry and the remnant of a brigade of cavalry and 
some artillery, at Waynesboro. Sheridan, not willing to leave 
Early in his rear, turned aside from the advance upon Lynchburg 
for the purpose of cleaning up Early at Waynesboro before 
proceeding further. This he did so effectively that on the 3d of 
March he captured Waynesboro, with the entire Confederate force 
except Generals Rosser, Wharton, Early and Long, who escaped 
with a few men. The substantial fruit of this victory was the 
capture of seventeen battle flags, eleven pieces of artillery, 
together with all the enemy's stores and trains; about 1,600 
officers and men of Early's force also fell into Sheridan's hands. 
This was the end of the war in the Shenandoah Valley, for in 
a little more than one month the Confederacy collapsed. 

The next day Sheridan entered Charlottesville, where he 
gathered in another remnant of the Confederate army and three 
44 



PHILIP HENKY SHERIDAN. 

pieces of artillery. He now turned again towards Lynchburg, 
destroying the railroad and canal as he advanced. Finding him- 
self unable to cross the James, the fords being impassable and 
the bridges destroyed, and therefore unable to join Sherman, 
and thinking it futile to return to the Valley, he determined to 
rejoin General Grant at Petersburg. March the 9th he started 
down the James River, destroying railroad and canal, notifying 
General Grant of his intended return, and marching by the way 
of Columbia, Louisa Court-House, Hanover Junction, and White 
House, he arrived at the latter place on the iSth of March. He 
made thorough work of the remaining railroad communications 
north of Richmond, and after a few days at White House for 
recuperation, and shedding the army of negroes and camp- 
followers that had attached themselves to his column, on the 
25th he again put his column in motion and on the 27th 
reported at Hancock's Station in front of Petersburg. 

It had been General Grant's purpose that Sheridan should 
have crossed the James River and proceeded to North Carolina, 
and, having joined Sherman, closed up upon Lee from the south- 
ward and westward. But it now seems providential that the 
design failed. Had Sheridan and his cavalry been absent in 
Carolina it now seems almost impossible but that Lee would 
have reached Lynchburg, and the " lost cause" would not have 
found its last ditch at Apj^omattox. 

After all his lines of supply had been cut on the north of the 
James, it became with Lee a question of escape with his army 
from the lines of Petersburg. It is apparent now that Sheridan 
was just where he was needed. 



45 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 



XI. 



On the morning of March 29, Sheridan moved out from 
Petersburg on his last campaign, with his three divisions, under 
command of Devin, Crook, and Custer, Merritt commanding the 
ist and 3d as a corps. Satisfied that the end was close at hand, 
the object was to turn the right of Lee's army and prevent him 
from escaping into the open countr}' to the w^estward, or uniting 
with Johnson in North Carolina. The condition of the roads 
was as bad as it could possibly be, and troops were moved with 
the greatest difficulty. In fact there have been Generals at the 
head of our army who would have said that it was quite impos- 
sible. But Sheridan did not know the application of that 
word. That night he was at Dinwiddle Court-House, beyond 
the enemy's left, and commanding the roads leading to his rear 
by way of Five Forks. The possession of the latter point be- 
came, therefore, of prime stragetic importance, a fact which both 
parties realized. 

General Lee had already ■ drawn in the divisions of W. H. F. 
Lee and Rosser to Five Forks, and on the morning of the 30th 
Sheridan pushed out Davis' division, supported by Gregg's 
brigade, to feel the enemy, and, if possible, to seize that point. 
But, finding the enemy's cavalry supported by Pickett's division 
of infantry, no attack was made that day beyond driving in the 
Confederate outposts and skirmishers. During the night of the 
30th the enemy strengthened his hold on Five Forks by additions 
of cavalry and infantry, and the construction of breastworks, and 
on the 31st, Pickett, in command of the entire Confederate force 
at Five Forks, assumed the offensive, and little by little Sher- 
46 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

idan's several detachments were forced back toward Dinwiddie. 
Custer coming up to that point with the horse artillery, by 
sundown Sheridan had his force well in hand, extending in a 
semicircle around the north side of Dinwiddie Court-House, on 
a radius of a little more than half a mile. Here, just at evening, 
Pickett attacked with his infantry, but was quickly and decis- 
ively repulsed, and so ended the battle of Dinwiddie, with 
Sheridan firmly planted, and confronted by the enemy's cav- 
alry, and at least five brigades of his infantry. It was manifest 
that something decisive was about to happen upon our left. 
During the night of the 31st, Warren's Corps (5th) was ordered 
to report to Sheridan, as well as General McKenzie's cavalry 
from the Army of the James. Warren was the extreme left of 
Grant's infantry, and holding north of Grtivelly Run and west of 
the Boydton plank road, almost in the rear of Pickett. 

Sheridan was advised by General Grant that Warren should 
report to him by midnight, but when at 3 a. m. Sheridan had 
heard nothing from him he sent him an order to move down on 
Pickett's rear and attack at daylight. Sheridan intended to 
attack at daylight in front, and hoped by this combination with 
Warren to destroy Pickett. The day of Five Forks had come. 
Almost as soon as daylight Sheridan attacked, and Pickett 
retiring in the direction of Five Forks, Sheridan listened 
eagerly and anxiously for the sound of Warren's guns, who he 
thought should have possession of the junction of the roads near 
Boisseau's, which would bar the retreat of Pickett to Five Forks. 
But he was doomed to disappointment. Pickett safely passed 
the junction, followed by Sheridan's cavalry, before the head 
of Warren's column showed itself, and the golden opportunity 
of the day was lost. 

47 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Satisfied that Pickett must fight at Five Forks, vSheridan 
steadily pressed him back into his works at that point. Pickett 
formed his hne with his five brigades of infantry on his left, 
Lee's division of cavalry on the right, and ten pieces of artillery 
distributed on the flanks and centre. His line extended about 
three-quarters of a mile either side of Five Forks with a strong 
return upon the left. Five Forks was a mere cross roads in the 
woods. About a mile and a half east and south of the Five 
Forks was Gravelly Run Church. It was half a mile from the 
return of Pickett's works and a little south of White Oak road, 
which ran nearly due east from Five Forks. Sheridan's plan 
of battle was to mass Warren's Corps at Gravelly Run Church, 
with McKenzie's cavalry on his right, Merritt's two divisions 
under Custer and Devin on Warren's left extending along the 
enemy's front and pushed up as closely as possible to his breast- 
works. Crook with his division protecting the left. Merritt was 
to demonstrate heavily on his left, when Warren should advance 
his three divisions with a grand left wheel, aligning himself per- 
pendicularly to the White Oak road, and throw himself upon 
the return, and sweep down the rear of the enemy's works, 
while Merritt should assault along the whole line in front. 

The plan was complete and was substantially carried out, 
though at one time it came near miscarrying through the failure 
of Crawford's division of Warren's Corps to change direction as 
ordered and throw itself on the return of the enemy's works. 
It was about 4 o'clock p. m. when the attack began by Ayer's 
division, which engaged in a furious assault at the angle of the 
return, where it met a most obstinate resistance from the Con- 
federate infantrv. Crawford, by some error, instead of wheeling 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

to the left, deflected to the right, followed by Griffin, thus leaving 
a gap in the line which at one time threatened disaster. Griffin, 
who was to have passed around the return and assaulted the 
rebel rear, discovered Crawford's error, and wheeling his division 
to the left across Crawford's rear, came up on Ayer's right, and 
together they went over the works after a most gallant and 
bloody contest, Devin's division of cavalry swinging in with 
them and sweeping down the rear of the enemy's line to and 
beyond Five Forks. Custer, on the left, had a more obstinate 
resistance, being confronted with both infantry and cavalry, but 
before dark the last opposition gave way, and the field was 
completely in our possession. We had taken six of the enemy's 
ten guns, thirteen battle flags, and nearly six thousand prisoners. 
Lee's right was now uncovered, and there was nothing for him 
to do but to get out of Petersburg or surrender. 

The battle of Five Forks will rank with the battles of Win- 
chester and Fisher's Hill in point of importance and com- 
pleteness. The plan of battle in each case was very similar — 
a strong attack in front, with a demonstration upon one flank, 
while a turning column was thrown beyond and upon the 
other flank. The plan was perfect, and the execution proved 
sufficient in all respects. Considered with reference to its 
strategy, the handling of the troops, and its results both in 
losses to the enemy and as aflecting the campaign, Five Forks was 
the greatest of Sheridan's battles. It is no part of the purpose 
of this memoir to enter into the famous controversy in regard to 
General Warren's removal. Warren disappointed Sheridan 
grievously: first, in not getting up on the night of the 31st of 
March ; second, in not attacking in the rear of Pickett, as he 
49 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

was directed to do on the morning of the ist; third, in his 
slowness in bringing forward his Corps and massing them at 
Gravelly Run Church; fourth, in the tactical handling of his 
troops, and in allowing Crawford and Griffin to get away from 
him and move in the wrong direction ; and, finally, in that 
Warren did not exhibit that alacrity and zeal, that intense 
earnestness and activity which Sheridan thought were de- 
manded in this supreme crisis of the war. 

Sheridan himself was intense. He was always so in bat- 
tle ; but in this battle he was strung to the highest tension. 
He was fighting to end the war. He appreciated the fact 
that the time had come to accomplish that result, and that 
the place was there and the hour just then. Every faculty 
of body and soul was thrown into the conflict. He feared 
that darkness would come with Pickett still holding on at 
Five Forks, and that Lee would escape, or that he might 
heavily re-enforce Pickett and inflict defeat on himself. Every 
other consideration had to yield to the supreme necessity of 
immediate and complete victory. It may be that it would have 
been attained without the change of commandei's, but Sheridan 
did what he believed the greatest interests of the cause made 
imperative. Warren was a brave soldier, with a brilliant career ; 
but on the day of Five Forks he was not up to the white heat of 
Sheridan. 

xn. 

Events now followed one upon another in such quick succession, 
like the dissolving views of a phantasmagoria, or the unrolling 
of a panorama, that it is almost impossible to record them. 
SO 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

General Lee, finding that his right was exposed, on the 2d of 
April let go his hold on Petersburg and Richmond and com- 
menced concentrating his army upon Amelia Court-House, 
thence to reach the open country, and if possible to unite with 
Johnston in North Carolina. 

In vain Grant assaulted the works around Petersburg in the 
hope of holding Lee until he could throw sufficient of his force 
around the left to prevent his getting away. On the night of 
the 2d Lee made good his escape, and, clinging to the south 
bank of the Appomattox, passed beyond the left of Grant's in- 
fantry. The pursuit was immediately pi'essed by Sheridan, 
with his cavalry close upon the heels of Lee. On the evening 
of the 3d there was an affair of the rear guard at Deep Creek, 
which i-esulted in the capture of wagons, prisoners, and guns ; 
but during the night Lee pushed on. 

On the 4th, Sheridan got across the path of the I'etreating 
enemy at Jettersville with part of the 5th Corps and some of 
the cavalry, and blocked the road to Burksville Junction and 
the south. An affair of Davis's brigade of cavalry resulted in 
the destruction of many wagons and the capture of more guns. 

General Meade seems to have believed that Lee would make 
a stand at Amelia Court-House ; but again he slipped past our 
left flank during the night, Longstreet leading, Ewell following, 
and Gordon bringing up the rear. Longstreet succeeded in 
reaching Rice's depot ; but Sheridan interposed with his cav- 
alry between Longstreet and Ewell, in front of Sailor's Creek, 
and the 6th Corps, under Wright, closing in between Ewell and 
Gordon, after a brief but desperate battle at Sailor's Creek, on 
the evening of the 6th Ewell surrendered with all his corps, 
51 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

including six Generals, his artillery and material, except a por- 
tion of Anderson's division, which escaped in a disorganized 
condition. At any other period of the war the battle of Sailor's 
Creek would have been regarded as a very severe engagement 
and a most notable victory. But at this cataclysmal epoch, when 
the Confederacy was crumbling and armies were dissolving, it 
was scarcely differentiated from the surrender at Appomattox 
Court-House, in which it speedily resulted. It wiped out one of 
Lee's three army corps, and destroyed the last hope of uniting 
the Army of Northern Virginia with the army of General John- 
ston in Carolina. The honor of this victory must be divided 
about equally between the cavalry and the 6th Corps under 
General Wright. 

Once more night gave Lee the opportunity to pass by the 
flank of his opponents, and the morning found his main body at 
and beyond Farmville. Here, on the morning of the 7th, Sher- 
idan attacked him with Crook's division, to delay him, while 
two divisions were sent to Prince Edwards Court-House to head 
him oft' from the direction of Johnston. The fact of the fight 
north of the Appomattox at Farmville seemed to demonstrate 
that Lee had given up Danville and was striking for Lynchburg. 
It was all important that he should be prevented from reaching 
the latter place, with its fortifications and railroad communi- 
cations. Sheridan only could bring him to bay. He now 
pushed everything forward to Appomattox Depot on the 
Southside road to anticipate Lee's arrival. 

On the afternoon of the 8th Sheridan got possession of the 
Depot with several trains of supplies, twenty-five pieces of artil- 
lery, lai-ge numbei-s of wagons, and other materials of war, and, 
52 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

the Confederate advance coming up, he vigorously attacked at 
once, extending his left toward Appomattox Court-House, and 
pushed back the enemy on the latter place. 

Sheridan was once more in Lee's front, and our infantry was 
closing on his rear. Every one was confident that the end was 
at hand. Skirmishing was continued throughout the night. 
All felt the inspiration of the hour; every one was doing his 
utmost. 

Ord marched his iSth Corps all night long to get in front of 
the enemy, and came upon the ground just at the critical moment 
to check the last attempt of Lee to break through. 

For the last time, on the morning of April 9, 1S65, Sheridan 
put his invincible troopers in battle order. Crook and McKenzie 
were holding our left; then came the iSth and 5th Corps, with 
Custer and Devin on their right. Already the knightly Custer 
was chafing for the word to charge, when the message came that 
the white' flag was up within the Confederate lines. The war 
was over and the rebellion dead. That day Lee surrendered the 
Army of Northern Virginia. 

It still lacked a month and eighteen days of three years since, 
at Corinth, Sheridan ceased to be a Captain and Acting Quar- 
termaster. But those three years were to him sufficient for 
immortality. Life is not measured by years, but by achieve- 
ments. Out of the darkness and gloom of war many a name 
flashed into fadeless glory and leaped to undying fame ; but not 
one of them all will shine more enduringly or with a brighter 
lustre than that of Philip Henry Sheridan. 



53 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 



XIII. 



Sheridan will be known to the future as the fighting General. 
Great and valuable as were his subsequent services to his coun- 
try, popular interest in him will always center in the period from 
May 27, 1S62, to April 9. 1S65. 

If we shall seek for the sources of his great success, we shall 
find among them these : 

1. He was born a soldier. He had the military instinct. 
Among soldiers he was at home. He had a certain " divine 
fury " of battle. The sounds of conflict set his soul on fire. He 
inspired confidence in his men, and he reciprocated their confi- 
dence. 

2. He had the topographical faculty in the highest degree. 
His eye searched the country through which he passed. He 
took it in at a glance. He saw all its positions for defence or 
attack. He noted the streams, the crossings, the obstacles, the 
roads, the open country, positions for cavalry and artillery, the 
lines of advance or retreat. 

Beyond his own eyesight he freely employed scouts. What 
was rarely true of our Generals, he knew the country in his 
front ; he also knew the country in his rear. 

When he was shifted to Virginia his first work was to thor- 
oughly study the country. 

3. He possessed a greater power of handling masses of 
mounted men than any other man in this generation, if not 
in this century. He was a veritable Centaur. A single regi- 
ment of cavalry is an unwieldy body. A division of cavalry 
is often too much for its commander to bring on the field at 

54 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

the critical time and place. But Sheridan handled his di- 
visions like squadrons. At Yellow Tavern, at Trevillian's 
Station, at Winchester, at Five Forks, at Sailor's Creek, and 
at Appomattox, he showed the world what can be done with 
cavalry as a fighting arm. 

4. He was not simply a cavalryman; he was a General. 
He handled inlantry with the same facility and skill as cavalry. 
At Stone river and at Mission Ridge there was no better 
tactician than Sheridan. His strategy was simple. Good 
strategy always is. One cause of the success of his tactics 
was that he was always upon the field himself to witness their 
execution and correct errors. 

His subordinates knew this ; the men knew this, and all did 
their utmost to succeed. Personal confidence, and what is 
called personal magnetism, had much to do with his success. 
He selected his subordinates with care, and then he demanded 
from them success. If he discovered, or believed that he dis- 
covered, that they were doing less than their best, there was 
liable to be a change of commanders. 

5. He had no reserves in his devotion to the cause of the 
nation. No personal attachments or antipathies interfered with 
his zeal for the Union. No matter who went up or who went 
down, he was for victory always. There was no holding back 
and no criticizing commanders. There would be time enough 
for that after the victory was won. To reach the enemy, to 
strike him with all his power, to follow him, to destroy him, to 
achieve peace through victory — these were his ambitions. 



55 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 



XIV. 



The day after Appomattox Court-House, Sheridan with his 
Corps returned to Petersburg, After a brief rest, he started to 
join Sherman in North Carolina, but on reaching Dan River, 
he heard of Johnston's surrender and turned back. 

Ordered to Washington, he was assigned to the command 
of the Trans-Mississippi Department, with an army of 50,000 
men under his command. It must have cost him a severe 
pang to give up reviewing his troopers in the National Capital ; 
but without delay longer than unavoidable to receive his in- 
structions, he proceeded to Texas and the Mexican frontier. 

Of his services there ; of his influence in restoring Republican 
government to our sister Republic ; of his part in re-estab- 
lishing government and order in Texas; of his part in the 
reconstruction of Louisiana, including his action following the 
bloody riot, or, as he called it, " massacre," of July 30, 1866, 
at New Orleans, this memoir will not treat further than to say 
this — his course was fully justified by General Grant and by 
Congress. 

In the notable contest between President Johnson and the 
Congress in regard to the reconstruction of Louisiana, General 
Sheridan sympathized with Congress, and his action was in 
accordance therewith. The result was that September i, 1867, 
he was relieved of the command of the 5th Military District, and 
General Hancock was assigned thereto. General Sheridan 
was now ordered to the command of the Military Department 
of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth. In 
this Department he brought to the discharge of his new but less 
56 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN, 

conspicuous duties all the traits of character which had distin- 
guished him during the great War. 

It seems little less than pitiful to think of the hero of Cedar 
Creek and Five Forks conducting Indian campaigns on the 
frontier. But whatever he did he did it thoroughly. From this 
command he was relieved by order of General Grant on March 
2, 1869. 

Among the first official acts of President Grant on the day of 
his inauguration was the appointment of General Sheridan as 
Lieutenant-General of the Army, an appointment which was 
promptly confirmed by the Senate, and which he continued to 
hold until, during his fatal illness June i, 1888, he reached the 
hio-hest military rank by his appointment to be General of the 
Army. 

General Sheridan at once reported to the President at Wash- 
ington, and having requested not to be again ordered to duty in 
the South under the reconstruction laws, he was assigned to 
succeed General Sherman as Commander of the Division of the 
Missouri, in which command he continued until July 25, 1870, 
when he received leave to proceed to Europe to observe the then 
pending war between France and Germany. 

He was accredited by President Grant, then acknowledged 
to be the greatest soldier living, " as one of the most skilful, 
brave and deserving soldiers developed by the great struggle " 
through which we had just passed. 

Sailing on July 27 from New York, it was August 17 when 

General Sheridan arrived on the scene of hostilities at Pont-a- 

Mousson, the night before the battle of Gravelotte. Having 

been most courteously received by Count Von Bismarck and 

57 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

King William of Prussia, he had an excellent opportunity to 
observe the great battles of Gravelotte and Sedan, and the lesser 
engagement at Beaumont, and to compare the military qualities 
of the trained armies of Europe with the performance of the 
citizen soldiers of the United States. 

In a letter written to President Grant from Rheims, September 
13, I S70, General Sheridan states his conclusions. He says: 
" I have seen much of great interest, and especially have been 
able to observe the difference between European battles and 
those of our own country. I have not found the difference very 
great, but that difference is to the credit of our country." 

Having accompanied the army vmtil the investment of Paris 
was complete, he availed himself of the opportunity for a hasty 
trip through Europe, visiting Belgium, Germany, Turkey, 
Greece, Italy and Switzerland, returning to Paris in time to 
witness the triumphant entry of the Germans into the French 
capital. 

Upon his return to the United States he resumed the duties of 
his rank as Lieutenant-General, with headquarters at Chicago. 
It was while here, in October, 1871, that an unparalleled confla- 
gration destroyed the greater part of that city, and General 
Sheridan rendered inestimable services in the preservation of 
order and in the protection of life and property during the cha- 
otic period following the great disaster. 

While residing at Chicago he was married to Miss Irene 
Rucker, daughter of Major-General D. H. Rucker, a union 
which proved the great happiness of his life, and soothed and 
blessed the months of weary pain and anxious waiting after he 
was stricken with his fatal malady. 

Upon the retirement of General Sherman, November i, 1883, 
58 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

General Sheridan removed to Washington and assumed com- 
mand of the army of the United States, which he continued to 
hold unt'l his death. 

Near the end of May, iSSS, General Sheridan returned from 
a long and exhausting tour of inspection of Western posts, when 
he was prostrated by his fatal disease, nervous exhaustion at- 
tended by failure of the action of the heart. Long weeks he 
lingered between life and death, while the love and devotion of a 
great nation watched with breathless anxiety to which side the 
scales should incline. The struggle was long and heroic, but it 
was one in which the great soldier could set no serried battalions 
in the field ; one in which he could oppose neither faultless tactics 
nor masterly strategy to the great enemy. That antagonist was 
already in the citadel of life, and on August 5, 1SS8, the uncon- 
ditional surrender was made. 

On tlie grassy slopes of Arlington, fronting the white marble 
Capitol' of the Nation, just where the shadow of the lofty shaft 
to the name of Washington falls in the light of the morning sun, 
surrounded by the thousands upon thousands of his comrades 
who fell in the great struggle, there rests the illusti"ious soldier 
from all his warfare, from all his labors. 

A nation's love and honor keep sleepless vigil at his grave. 
His name is written in imperishable letters in her history. His 
life, his genius, his devotion to duty, his unconditional patri- 
otism, remain a heritage to a great people, and an inspiration to 

coming generations. 

B. M. CUTCHEON, 

ARCHIBALD HOPKINS, 

J. W. CLOUS, 

H. V. BOYNTON. 

59 



APPENDIX. 



MILITARY RECORD OF GENERAL SHERIDAN. 



General. 

Sheridan, Philip H., i June, li 

Born in -Ohio. 

Appointed from M. A., Oliio. 



Service 


IN THE Army. 




In volunteers. 




Col. 2 Mich. Cav., . 25 May, 


'62. 


Brig. Gen., . . . . i July, 


" 


Accepted, . . . 


. 30 Sept., 


" 


Maj. Gen., . . . 


. 31 Dec, 


" 


Accepted, . . . 


10 Apr., 


'63. 


Vacated, .... 


S Nnv_. 


'64. 


In fermajicnt establishment 


Cadet, M. A., . . i July, 


'48 


Bvt. 2 Lt. I Inf., . 


I J»lj. 


'53 


2 Lt. 4 Inf , . . . 


22 Nov., 


'54 


I Lt , 




I Mar., 


'61. 


Capt. 13 Inf., 




14 May, 


" 


Accepted, . 




3 Aug., 


" 


Brig. Gen., 




20 Sept., 


•64. 


Maj. Gen., . 




8 Nov., 


" 


Lt. Gen,, . 




4 Mar. , 


'69 


General, 




I June, 


'88. 



61 




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